1. The Field of the Invention
This invention relates to systems, methods, and computer program products for designing, customizing, or otherwise ordering materials through a computerized user interface.
2. Background and Relevant Art
Resin panels, such as panels made from copolyester, acrylic, polyvinyl chloride, and/or polycarbonate materials are now used in a wide range of environments where glass panels were used previously. In particular, resin panels can now be manufactured in a wide range of gauges and sizes, as well as in a wide range of colors, degrees of translucence, and with various ranges of both aesthetic benefits and structural rigidity. As a result, resin panels are now common place as a glass replacement for any number of aesthetic and functional ends. In particular, resin panels are often now used in an interior space anywhere glass may have been used, such as in a wall, ceiling, or floor structure, or in a simple room partition.
In general, resin panels tend to provide a number of benefits over glass, in that they tend to be more lightweight, tend to be less fragile, and also tend to be more flexible in how they are formed and used for different uses. In particular, the expense of forming or assembling resin panel structures tends to be far less than the expense of doing the same with glass. These and other features make it generally easier, and more cost-effective, to create certain decorative effects with resin panels, compared with glass. For example, there are now a wide range of ways in which a manufacturer will adhere one or more decorative image layers to one or more resin panels, such as by adhering a decorative surface treatment (color film or fabric) to an outside surface of a resin panel substrate. Additional ways include adhering these or other materials between two or more resin panels, which ultimately display the decorative image layer after thermoforming processes have been completed (i.e., due to the translucence of the resin panels).
In particular, resin substrates (i.e., resin sheets combined in a resin panel) tend to be easier to work compared with glass. This tends to be true for a variety of reasons, many of which stem from the common benefit that manipulation of resin substrates can be done at much lower temperatures and pressures than glass. The notion of lower temperatures and pressures, in turn, increases the numbers of decorative materials that can be used with decorative resin panels that are made using thermoforming techniques, and further improves the cost-effectiveness (compared with glass) for manipulating the decorative resin panels. In particular, the possible choices for decorative resin panels extend to a wide range of decorative image layer materials, such as natural or synthetic minerals, plants or plant fibers, fabrics, films, metals, etc. Furthermore, resin panels can be modified by color, and by degree of opacity or translucence in the resin panel substrates, in addition to any decorative textures or relief surfaces applied thereon.
Accordingly, it is common for customers (e.g., architects, designers) to be selective about specific combinations of resin panels and decorative materials, pursuant to creating an ultimate effect in an environment. In general, there are a number of ways for providing a customer with the ability to pick certain decorative objects and shapes for a given set of one or more resin panels. Conventional mechanisms include providing a paper-based catalog of previously manufactured/designed resin panels, or of certain colors, resin types, textures, decorative objects, and so forth that can be combined by the customer for a particular end product. In some cases, a manufacturer/supplier might even provide these sorts of materials on an internet website, and allow the customer to select and order visual representations of the materials using an electronic ordering form.
In general, the above-described mechanisms for providing a customer with choices, particularly with respect to paper catalogs, tend to be fairly time-consuming, and limited in terms of provided possibilities. For example, a manufacturer/supplier may need to first prepare a distinct image of each material and/or corresponding usage in a decorative resin panel. In some cases, the images may be image layers using the palate of variable design criteria offered by the sponsor of a website, while, in other cases, the images may be sketches thereof. The manufacturer can then place the image in a paper catalog, or post the image via the manufacturer's website. While this sort of process can work well for certain commonly-ordered resin panels or resin panel designs, this sort of process can be limited with customized resin panels.
For example, a customer might select polycarbonate panels with a wave-based relief surface, which uses pebbles as an interlayer and a light blue color film background. If the paper or web-based catalog showed this combination without the pebbles, without the blue color film, or without some other feature, the user might have difficulty envisioning how the resulting decorative panel should look when finished. Although there are computerized mechanisms that can show the effect of overlaying two different images (e.g., one color layer and another color layer), the number of factors involved with creating resin panel combinations can make the overall process daunting, especially given the possible number of design permutations.
Specifically, there are significant difficulties with correctly and realistically displaying through a computerized system the relatively endless possible combinations, and combinations of combined materials in a resultant resin panel, and in a way that are just as the materials would look when combined in real life.